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Land Hosting Opportunities for Solar Arrays
GreenSpark partners with local families to find the best economic and environmental opportunity for landowners, solar developers, and communities.
GreenSpark land host partners are able to generate a stable revenue stream while benefiting the local community with clean solar energy.
The Schreiber Family
GreenSpark partnered with the Schreiber family for this 2.2 MW solar array located in Ontario, NY. The project is owned by Home Leasing, a local Certified B Corp utilizing the solar savings to benefit their affordable housing communities.
What Makes a Good Site for Solar
When GreenSpark is evaluating a site’s solar potential, below are a few key factors we look at. If your land checks these boxes, it could be a good fit for a solar project.
- 20 or more acres.
- Three-phase power (to find this out, look at a utility pole nearby and if it has three wires on top, it is three-phase power).
- 12kV circuit or higher.
- Limited number of projects in the interconnection queue.
Typical Land Host Structures with GreenSpark
- 20-25 year agreements.
- Typical lease rates include $1,000-$2,000 per acre* with a 1-2% escalation each year.
- GreenSpark removes panels at the end of the contract.
- Agreements offer the opportunity to partner with a local, independent company and Certified B Corp, while hosting clean, locally-generated solar to benefit our communities.
*Price per acre will vary depending on cost of interconnection, size of project, property taxes, & permitting requirements.
How does land hosting impact farmland?
Every solar project is different. When it makes sense to do so, GreenSpark utilizes brownfields, landfills, or rooftops. When GreenSpark builds a project on a portion of land that is zoned agriculture, we work with the land owner to identify the least utilized portion while providing a steady revenue stream which supports their farming operation.
GreenSpark believes that with good design and management, farming and energy production can co-locate on the same land in ways that are beneficial to a farmer’s operation.
Interested? Let's chat.
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FAQs
Absolutely.
Join some of our agricultural customers such as Long Acre Farms, Young Sommer Winery, Cherry Lawn Fruit Farms, and more. Get your free quote here.
The short answer is no.
In New York State, policy is structured in such a way that you would have to build a very large utility-scale solar project to make the economics viable, as the utility buys the solar power at a low, wholesale price.
There are multiple ways to structure solar projects.
The owner of the project could be a business, municipality, or institution that will offset their electricity needs with an off-site solar array. Other times, a third party financier will own the project and hire a company such as GreenSpark to install the project, which could become a Community Solar array for example.
If your farm would like to offset its own electricity needs, getting a free quote is the best route to go.
Solar project development, however, is typically completed by a solar developer in the industry, due to the complexities and experience required in nearly every stage of the process (design, engineering, procurement of equipment, permitting, installation, finding the offtaker/end-users, etc.).
About GreenSpark
GreenSpark Solar is a fully independent certified Benefit corporation with a mission to provide diverse renewable energy solutions for homeowners, business owners, community partners, and more.
GreenSpark is a proud member-owner of the Amicus Solar Cooperative.
Amicus is a group of over 50 small to medium independently-owned solar companies who formed the first 100% member-owned solar purchasing cooperative in North America. Together, our values-driven companies are able to provide industry-best pricing on quality equipment for our customers. The Amicus Solar Cooperative is a Certified B-Corp and Public Benefit Corporation.
GreenSpark Solar achieved status as a Certified B Corp in 2015.
The B Corp philosophy, to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems, aligns perfectly with the company’s vision. We are proud to be a part of a growing community of more than 4,000 companies across 150 industries with one unifying goal: redefining success in business.
